WHAT’S THE SCOOP?: After closing its doors in February of last year, Sam’s Club is set to reopen in spring 2012. At a ceremony Friday morning, Warwick’s elected officials, including Mayor Scott Avedisian (third from left), expressed their pleasure with Sam’s decision to reopen in the city, alongside Chris Buchanan (left) and Janice Trelewicz (second from left) of Sam’s.

It’s official: Sam’s Club at 25 Pace Boulevard off Bald Hill Road will reopen in the spring of 2013 and local elected officials are pleased yet another business is popping up in Warwick.

At a press conference Friday morning, Chris Buchanan, director of Public Affairs and Government Relations for Wal-Mart, a corporation that owns and operates Sam’s, said he is equally as happy.

“We’re very excited about this project,” Buchanan said. “If it were up to us, we’d be opening next week.”

Market Manager Janice Trelewicz agreed.

“We are thrilled to be reopening this location,” she said at the event.

The store, which originally opened in 1994, is the only one in the state. It closed its doors in February of last year after announcing plans to construct a new, handicapped accessible structure, complete with a pharmacy and an optical department. While the building is currently 132,000 square feet, the new facility will be slightly bigger at approximately 135,000 square feet. Buchanan did not provide a construction cost.

Mayor Scott Avedisian, who attended the event and expressed his pleasure that Warwick will again receive tax revenue from Sam’s, thanked the company for their commitment to the city.

K. Joseph Shekarchi, Sam’s longtime attorney, said while many other communities wanted Sam’s to relocate to their municipalities; Sam’s remains committed to staying in Warwick.

In fact, since opening, Sam’s has made a $1.1 million investment to Warwick, plus contributions to the state, such as donations like $2,500 of dog food to the Warwick Animal Shelter and other agencies.

Additionally, the reopening will provide more than 120 jobs in the community, as well as 150 temporary construction jobs. Demolition, which will take more than a month, has already commenced.